1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus such as an MFP used in a network of a government or corporate office.
2. Description of the Related Art
Intranets have recently come into widespread use in government and corporate offices, and others. In addition, image processing apparatuses called Multi Function Peripherals (MFPs) are provided with a network function, so that the image processing apparatuses are used in the intranets together with other devices such as personal computers.
In some cases, an intranet includes a plurality of image processing apparatuses. In such cases, normally, a user of the intranet uses any one of the image processing apparatuses primarily. The user registers his/her private address book, setting information for a touch panel display and others in the image processing apparatus that is used primarily.
Further, a case may arise where a new image processing apparatus that has higher performance than the existing image processing apparatuses is added to an intranet. Depending on the circumstances, it may be convenient for users to use the new image processing apparatus primarily instead of the existing image processing apparatus. Conversely, it may be convenient for the users to use the existing image processing apparatus primarily as before.
There are proposed processing methods relating to an apparatus that is newly added to a network as described in Japanese unexamined patent publication Nos. 2004-127310, 2004-192321, 2004-328276, 2005-11054, 2003-280851 and 2000-231471.
A method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2004-127310 is used in a network system including a client printer and a server device interconnected via a communications line. The client printer performs inquiry about capability information to other device on the network, and discloses, to a PC, virtual device information created by improving a function as compared with its original capability based on the capability information obtained from the other device. The PC transmits printing data to the client printer based on the virtual device information, and executes a print request. The client printer that has received the print request exceeding its original capability determines a server device for which the processing is asked based on the capability information. Then, the client printer asks the server device for the processing and receives the printing data after the processing to execute print output.
A method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2004-192321 is used in a printing system that includes a plurality of printers interconnected through a communications line and designates one of the printers to perform printing. At least one of the printers is a high performance printer having high image processing capacity and at least one of the printers is a normal printer having only normal image processing capacity. As to an image processing function, when the processing capacity of the high performance printer is a predetermined multiple or more of that of the normal printer, the image processing function is not performed by the normal printer but is performed by the high performance printer as a proxy. After that, the processing result is transferred to the normal printer and printed out by the normal printer that is designated to perform printing.
Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2004-328276 describes an image processing system in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses such as digital multifunction devices having different functions and a printer and a server are connected through a network so that they can communicate with one another. According to a method described in the publication, a function discrimination part in the digital multifunction device determines whether the device itself has a desired function or not in response to user's input of the desired function from an input picture only for users in a touch panel part. When it is determined that the device does not have this function, a function retrieval part refers to apparatus information registered in a server to retrieve an image forming apparatus having the function among the plurality of image forming apparatuses on the network, and a display control part displays, on the touch panel part, a message for informing the user of the location of the image forming apparatus retrieved by the function retrieval part.
According to a method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2005-11054, when detecting that a printer is connected to a local port on a PC which can be connected to a plurality pieces of device equipment including a printing device, a supervisory control program to be executed by a CPU decides whether or not a device driver of the printer whose connection is detected has been installed. When deciding that the device driver has been installed, the supervisory control program sets the printer whose connection has been detected as “a printer to be usually used”.
According to a method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2003-280851, a network printer system is configured as follows: The network printer system is constituted of a printer registering part for registering a printer on a personal computer, a sub-net detecting part for obtaining a sub-net from an IP address and a sub-net mask, a table control part for registering the printer registered by the printer registering part and the sub-net obtained by the sub-net detecting part, and for retrieving the printer from the sub-net, a table for storing the sub-net and the printer by the table control part, a notifying part for notifying whether or not any printer available on the sub-net is present, a printer changing part for changing the printer to be normally used by an OS, a print control part for executing print processing in response to a request from a user, and for notifying the start of print, and a start detecting part for notifying that the personal computer is started.
According to a method described in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2000-231471, an external storage device of a computer is provided with a name of a usually-used printer, a name of a printer used last time, a counter for storing continuous printing frequencies of the printer used last time, and a table for storing specified use frequencies. The name of the printer used last time is set to be the name of the usually-used printer when the value of the counter becomes equal to or higher than the value of the specified use frequencies.
Thus, according to the conventional methods, when a new image processing apparatus participates in a network, the existing image processing apparatus can detect a function that is included in the new image processing apparatus and is higher than ever before.
As described earlier, however, it may be convenient for users to primarily use a new image processing apparatus having a function higher than the current function in the future. Conversely, it may be convenient for the users to continue using the existing image processing apparatus primarily. The conventional methods, however, cannot allow for such convenience for the users.